Nate Marshall is from the South Side of Chicago. He is the author of Wild Hundreds (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and an editor of The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket Books, 2015). He is a founding member of The Dark Noise Collective, and he is the National Program Director of Louder Than A Bomb Youth Poetry Slam. A Cave Canem fellow, his work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Indiana Review, and The New Republic, among others.

Megan Kaminski is the author of two books of poetry, Deep City (Noemi Press, 2015) and Desiring Map (Coconut Books, 2012), and nine chapbooks. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, American Letters & Commentary, Denver Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, Third Coast, and other journals. Before joining the faculty at the University of Kansas, she made her home in Los Angeles, Paris, and Portland, OR. She is an assistant professor in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at the University of Kansas and was the 2015-2016 Hall Center for the Humanities Creative Fellow. She also curates the Taproom Poetry Series in downtown Lawrence.

Sarah Carson’s newest book of poems, Buick City, was published in 2015 by Mayapple Press. She also is the author of the collection Poems in Which You Die (BatCat Press, 2014) and three chapbooks. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Cream City Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Diagram, Guernica, and The Nashville Review, among others.

David Trinidad's newest book of poems, Notes on a Past Life, was published in 2016 by BlazeVOX [books]. His other books include Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems (2011) and Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera (2013), both published by Turtle Point Press. He is also the editor of A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos (Nightboat Books, 2011). Trinidad lives in Chicago, where he is a Professor of Creative Writing/Poetry at Columbia College Chicago. (Photo by Alyssa Lynee.)

A British-Indian emigrant to the United States, Bhanu Kapil
lives in Colorado, where she teaches writing at Naropa University
and in the MFA low-residency program at Goddard College. She is the
author of five full-length works of poetry/prose, including, most
recently, Ban en Banlieue (Nightboat Books, 2015). She has
been incubating "Ban" through performances, talks, and
collaborations in the U.S., India, and the U.K.

Lauren Haldeman is the author of the poetry collection Calenday (Rescue Press, 2014). She works as the web developer, web designer, and editor for the Writing University website at the University of Iowa and the Iowa Review. She received her M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has been a finalist for the Walt Whitman award and the Colorado Prize for Poetry.

Geoffrey Gatza is an award-winning poet and editor whose most recent book of poetry is Apollo, published in 2014 by BlazeVOX [books].His books of poetry include Secrets of My Prison House; Kenmore: Poem Unlimited; and House Cat Kung Fu: Strange Poems for Wild Children.He is also the author of the yearly Thanksgiving Menu-Poem Series, a book length poetic tribute for prominent poets, now in its tenth year. His visual art poems have been displayed in gallery showings such as Occupy the Walls: A Poster Show (AC Gallery, New York); Occupy Wall Street N15 For Ernst Jandl—Minimal Poems with photography from the Fall of Liberty Square; and in Language to Cover a Wall: Visual Poetry Through Its Changing Media (UB Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY).Gatza is the editor and publisher of the small press BlazeVOX, whose fundamental mission is to disseminate poetry, through print and digital media, both within academic spheres and to society at large.

Siobhán Scarry is the author of the poetry collection Pilgrimly (Parlor Press, 2014). Her poems have appeared in Colorado Review, jubilat, New Letters, Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics, and elsewhere.Her prose poems were selected three years running as Editors’ Choice in Mid-American Review’s Fineline Competition for the Prose Poem.She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of literature and creative writing at Bethel College, Kansas.

Amaranth Borsuk's most recent book is As We Know (Subito Press, 2014), a collaboration with Andy Fitch. She is the author of Handiwork, and, with Brad Bouse, Between Page and Screen. Abra, a collaboration with Kate Durbin forthcoming from 1913 Press, recently received an NEA-sponsored Expanded Artists’ Books grant from the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago and will be issued as an artist’s book with an iPad app created by Ian Hatcher this year. Amaranth is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Bothell, where she also teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics.

Andy Fitch’s most recent books are Sixty Morning Walks, Sixty Morning Talks, and (with Amaranth Borsuk) As We Know (Subito Press, 2014). Ugly Duckling Presse soon will release his ebook Sixty Morning Walks. With Cristiana Baik, he is currently assembling the Letter Machine Book of Interviews. He has dialogic books forthcoming from 1913 Press and Nightboat Books. He edits Essay Press and teaches in the University of Wyoming’s MFA program.

Chris Green’s most recent book of poetry is Résumé, which was published in 2014 by Mayapple Press.His previous poetry collections are Epiphany School (2009) and The Sky Over Walgreens (2007), both also published by Mayapple.His poetry has appeared in such publications as Poetry, New York Times, New Letters, Verse, Nimrod, and Black Clock.He’s edited four anthologies, including Brute Neighbors: Urban Nature Poetry, Prose & Photography, the forthcoming I Remember: A Poem by Chicago Veterans of War, and the forthcoming Independent Voices: A Small Press Sampler. He co-founded LitCity, a comprehensive literary site for Chicago. He teaches in the English Department at DePaul University.

Poet/performer/librettist Douglas Kearney’s third poetry collection, Patter (Red Hen Press, 2014) examines miscarriage, infertility, and parenthood. His second, The Black Automaton (Fence Books, 2009), was a National Poetry Series selection. He has received residencies/fellowships from Cave Canem, The Rauschenberg Foundation, and others. His work has appeared in a number of journals, including Poetry, nocturnes, Pleiades, The Boston Review, The Iowa Review, Ninth Letter, Washington Square, and Callaloo. Two of his operas, Sucktion and Crescent City, have received grants from the MAPFund. Sucktion has been produced internationally.Crescent City premiered in Los Angeles in 2012. He teaches at CalArts, where he received his MFA in Writing ('04). (Photograph by Eric Plattner.)

Jeffery Conway's most recent book is Showgirls: The Movie in Sestinas (BlazeVOX Books, 2014).His other books include The Album That Changed My Life (Cold Calm Press, 2006), a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry, and two collaborations with Lynn Crosbie and David Trinidad, Chain Chain Chain (Ignition Press, 2000) and Phoebe 2002: An Essay in Verse (Turtle Point Press, 2003).His work appears in a variety of magazines and journals, including The World, The Portable Lower East Side, B City, Brooklyn Review, McSweeney’s, and Court Green.His poems can be found in many anthologies, such as The Incredible Sestina Anthology and Rabbit Ears: The First Anthology of Poetry about TV.

Meg Day is the author of the poetry collection Last Psalm at Sea Level, which won the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize and was published by Barrow Street in 2014. She also is the author of the chapbooks When All You Have Is a Hammer (winner of the 2012 Gertrude Press Chapbook Contest) and We Can't Read This (winner of the 2013 Gazing Grain Chapbook Contest). She is a 2013 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and a 2012 AWP Intro Journals Award Winner, and has received awards and fellowships from the Lambda Literary Foundation, Hedgebrook, Squaw Valley Writers, the Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities, and the International Queer Arts Festival. She is currently a PhD candidate, Steffensen-Cannon Fellow, and Point Foundation Scholar in Poetry & Disability Poetics at the University of Utah.

Jerome Sala’s newest book is the poetry collection The Cheapskates (Lunar Chandelier Press, 2014).His other books of poetry include cult classics such as Spaz Attack, I am Not a Juvenile Delinquent, The Trip, Raw Deal, Look Slimmer Instantly, and Prom Night, a collaboration with artist Tamara Gonzales.His poetry and criticism have appeared in The Best American Poetry series, The Nation, Evergreen Review, Pleiades, Conjunctions, Rolling Stone, The Brooklyn Rail, and many others.

Lee Ann Roripaugh is the author of four volumes of poetry, the most recent of which, Dandarians, was released by Milkweed Editions in September 2014. Her second volume, Year of the Snake (Southern Illinois University Press), was named winner of the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award in Poetry/Prose for 2004, and her first book, Beyond Heart Mountain (Penguin Books), was a 1998 winner of the National Poetry Series. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of South Dakota Review and directs the Creative Writing program at the University of South Dakota.

Peter Davis writes, draws, and makes music in Muncie, Indiana. His books of poetry are TINA (Bloof Books, 2013), Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! (Bloof Books, 2010), and Hitler's Mustache (Barnwood Press, 2006). He edited Poet's Bookshelf: Contemporary Poets on Books That Shaped Their Art (2005) and co-edited a second volume, Poet's Bookshelf II (2008). His poems have appeared in such places as Jacket, La Petite Zine, Court Green, Rattle, and The Best American Poetry.

r. erica doyle was born in Brooklyn to Trinidadian immigrant parents, and has lived in Washington, DC, Farmington, CT, and La Marsa, Tunisia. Her first book proxy, was published by belladonna* in 2013 and was a recipient of the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and a Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. Her work appears in various journals and anthologies including Best American Poetry, Our Caribbean, Bum Rush the Page, Ploughshares, Callaloo, and Sinister Wisdom. Erica received her M.F.A. in Poetry from The New School, and lives in New York City, where she is an administrator in the NYC public schools and facilitates Tongues Afire: A Free Creative Writing Workshop for queer women and trans and gender non-conforming people of color.

Chad Sweeney is a poet and translator. He is the author of four books of poetry, Wolf's Milk: The Lost Notebooks of Juan Sweeney (Forklift, 2012, bilingual English/Spanish), Parable of Hide and Seek (Alice James, 2010), Arranging the Blaze (Anhinga, 2009), and An Architecture (BlazeVox, 2007). He is the translator (from the Persian, with Mojdeh Marashi) of The Selected Poems of H.E. Sayeh: The Art of Stepping Through Time (White Pine, 2011). He is the editor of Ghost Town, the online journal of poetry and prose at California State University, San Bernadino, where he teaches in the MFA program in poetry.

Nick Twemlow's first book of poems, Palm Trees, was published in 2012 by Green Lantern Press and was the winner of the 2013 Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America.He is a senior editor for The Iowa Review and co-editor of Canarium Books.

Stephanie Strickland is the author of six books of print poetry, most recently Dragon Logic(Ahsahta Press, 2013), and seven electronic poems, most recently Sea and Spar Between, a poetry generator written with Nick Montfort using the words of Emily Dickinson and Moby-Dick.Her award-winning works include V: WaveSon.nets / Losing L’una—soon to re-appear with a new mobile app—True North, The Red Virgin: A Poem of Simone Weil, and "The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot." (Photo by Star Black.)

Jan Beatty's fourth full-length book, The Switching/Yard, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2013. Library Journal named it one of ...30 New Books That Will Help You Rediscover Poetry. Beatty’s poem, "Youngest Known Savior," from The Switching/Yard, was chosen for the 2013 edition of the Best American Poetry. Other books include Red Sugar, finalist for the 2009 Paterson Poetry Prize; Boneshaker, finalist, Milton Kessler Award; and Mad River, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize—all published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. A limited edition chapbook, Ravage, was published by Lefty Blondie Press in 2012. Another chapbook, Ravenous, won the 1995 State Street Prize.She directs the creative writing program at Carlow University, where she runs the Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops and teaches in the MFA program.

Kate Greenstreet is currently on the road with her new book Young Tambling. Her previous books are case sensitive and The Last 4 Things, all with Ahsahta Press. Her poetry can be found in Denver Quarterly, Chicago Review, Boston Review, and other journals.

Adrian Matejka's most recent poetry collection, The Big Smoke, about the life of the boxer Jack Johnson, was published by Penguin in May 2013. He is also the author of The Devil's Garden (Alice James Books, 2003) and Mixology (Penguin, 2009) which was a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series. He is the recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards and fellowships from Cave Canem and the Lannan Foundation. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, and Poetry among other journals and anthologies. You can click here to listen to him read the poem "The Battle of the Century," from The Big Smoke (discussed at 33:47 in this interview), at the jubilatwebsite.He teaches creative writing at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Shanna Compton's books include Brink (Bloof, 2013), For Girls & Others (Bloof, 2008), Down Spooky (Winnow, 2005), Gamers (Soft Skull, 2004), and several chapbooks. A book-length speculative poem called The Seam is forthcoming in 2014. Her work has been included in the Best American Poetry series and other anthologies, and recent poems have appeared in Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, Court Green, the Awl, and the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day feature.

Larry Sawyer curates the Myopic Books Poetry Series and is also the co-director of The Chicago School of Poetics. He was recently voted Best Poet by The Chicago Reader in its readers' poll for a second year. His books include Vertigo Diary (BlazeVox, 2013) and Unable to Fully California (Otoliths, 2010). His poetry and critical reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Boston Review, Chicago Tribune, Coconut, Court Green, Exquisite Corpse, Forklift Ohio, Jacket (Australia), Matter, NY Arts Magazine, Paper Tiger (Australia), Ploughshares, The Prague Literary Review, Skanky Possum, Tabacaria (Portugal), Vanitas, Van Gogh's Ear (France), Versal (Holland), Verse Daily, and VLAK (France). He also edits www.milkmag.org with Lina ramona Vitkauskas.

Yona Harvey is the author of the poetry collection, Hemming the Water (Four Way Books, 2013), and the recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation. Her work has been published in jubilat, Gulf Coast, Callaloo, West Branch, and many other journals and anthologies, including A Poet's Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry (ed. Annie Finch; University of Michigan Press, 2012). She lives with her husband and two children not far from where jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams grew up. Williams married the spiritual to the secular in her music, and is a regular muse in Yona's writing.

Lina ramona Vitkauskas is the author of the epic poem Spiny Retinas (Mutable Sound, forthcoming, 2014); A Neon Tryst(Shearsman Books, 2013); Honey is a She (Plastique Press, 2012); The Range of Your Amazing Nothing (Ravenna Press, 2010); and Failed Star Spawns Planet/Star (dancing girl press, 2006). Past and forthcoming publications include work in Coconut, The Awl, Matter, Tarpaulin Sky, DIAGRAM, TriQuarterly, The Chicago Review, and The Toronto Quarterly, among others. She is the marketing director of the Chicago School of Poetics and co-edits the 14-year-running online literary journal, milk magazine.

Leonard Schwartz's most recent book is If (Talisman House, 2012). He is also the author of At Element (Talisman House, 2011), A Message Back and Other Furors (Chax Press, 2008), The Library of Seven Readings (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2008), and Language as Responsibility (Tinfish Editions, 2006), among others. He hosts and produces the radio program "Cross Cultural Poetics" and teaches at The Evergreen State College. (Photograph by Star Black.)

Susan M. Schultz's books include, most recently, "She's Welcome to Her Disease": Dementia Blog, Volume 2 (forthcoming, Singing Horse Press, 2013) and Memory Cards (2010-2011 Series) -- prose poems composed to fit on a time card or index card (Singing Horse, 2011). She is the editor of the anthology Jack London Is Dead: Contemporary Euro-American Poetry in Hawai'i (and Some Stories), which was published in 2012 by Tinfish Press. Susan's critical work includes the book, A Poetics of Impasse in Modern and Contemporary Poetry (Univ. of Alabama Press, 2005). She founded Tinfish Press in 1995. Susan lives and teaches in Hawai'i and is a lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Joe Harrington is the author of Things Come On (an amneoir) (Wesleyan Poetry 2011), a mixed-genre work relating the twinned narratives of the Watergate scandal and his mother's cancer. Harrington is also the author of he chapbooks Earth Day Suite (Beard of Bees Press 2010 -- available as free PDF) and Of Some Sky (Bedouin, forthicoming), as well as the critical study Poetry and the Public: The Social Form of Modern U.S. Poetics (Wesleyan UP 2002). He was the 2005 Walt Whitman Chair of American Literature and Culture at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, under the auspices of the Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program. He is currently Professor of English at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

CM Burroughs is the author of the poetry collection The Vital System (Tupelo Press, 2012). She was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and earned degrees from Sweet Briar College and the University of Pittsburgh. She has been awarded fellowships from Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Idyllwild Arts, and Cave Canem Foundation. Both the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Warhol Museum have commissioned her to create poetry in response to art installations. She lives in Chicago, where she is the Elma Stuckey Emerging-Poet-in-Residence at Columbia College Chicago. She will join the Core Poetry Faculty at Columbia College in Fall 2013.

Hannah Gamble is the author of the poetry collection Your Invitation to a Modest Breakfast (Fence, 2012), which was one of the winners of 2011 National Poetry Series Competition, selected by Bernadette Mayer. Hannah has received writing and teaching fellowships from Rice University, the University of Houston, and The Edward F. Albee Foundation. Her poems and interviews appear or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, jubilat, The Laurel Review, Indiana Review, and Ecotone, among others. She teaches English at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and lives in Chicago.

Sandra Simonds is the author of Mother was a Tragic Girl (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2012) and Warsaw Bikini (Bloof Books, 2008). Her poems have been published in Poetry, The Believer, The American Poetry Review, Fence, and Court Green, among others. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida, and is an Assistant Professor of English at Thomas University in Georgia.

Michael McColly's recent book is the memoir The After-Death Room (Soft Skull Press), which chronicles his journey through several countries affected by the AIDS epidemic -- South Africa, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Senegal, and the United States. The After-Death Room won the 2007 Lambda Award for Best Spiritual Writing. Michael holds an M.A. in religious studies from University of Chicago and an M.F.A. from the University of Washington. He teaches creative writing in the B.A. and M.F.A. programs at Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University. His website is http://mikemccolly.com.

David Trinidad's most recent book is Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems, which was published last year by Turtle Point Press. Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera is forthcoming from Turtle Point in 2013. David lives in Chicago, where he teaches poetry at Columbia College and co-edits Court Green.